Wokingham and Emmbrook FC winning the Reading Evening Post Senior Cup last season

The town’s premier football team are facing relegation from Wokingham after a deal to secure their long-term future at Cantley Park was rejected.

After more than three years of negotiations and angry exchanges from objecting residents, Wokingham and Emmbrook Football Club have been told by Wokingham Borough Council a 20-year lease for the land in Twyford Road will not be signed.

And without the Cantley Park ground in place, the club will be forced to move out of the borough to find a ground that meets Football Association standards – possibly as far away as Windsor.

The club are baffled by the council’s U-turn on support for their bid to take over the Twyford Road ground and improve facilities, particularly after three years of public forum meetings and partnership working.

Hundreds of children and adults play for the club every week.

Their premier team are at the top of the Hellenic League Division One but hope to qualify for the Premier Division.

But to play in that division, the first team need to provide a ground with floodlights and a 250-seat stand to comply with Football Association standards, a project that will cost around £100,000.

The under-18s play in the Allied Counties, the top division in the south of England, but have been playing in Tilehurst and this season will be nomadic.

When the club’s project to expand from its ground in Lowther Road, Emmbrook, to Cantley began in 2006, it had the full backing of the council, including promises of funding.

But last year, the club suffered a blow when the council announced it could no longer provide funding for the project, but wished the club well in making their own funding bid.

The council has now withdrawn its support for the project further, saying it will not agree to a lease, which the Football Foundation requires in order to accept a funding bid.

The project’s downfall began when Paul Turrell, deputy chief executive of the council, was made redundant earlier this year.

He had been the key contact for the football club and had helped draw up a lease, which other council officers have since vetoed as being unacceptable.

Last week Mark Moon, general manager for place and neighbourhood services, said it would not be appropriate for the “crown in Wokingham’s open space” to be dedicated to one private club.

He said: “Wokingham and Emmbrook Football Club are continuing to operate at Cantley Park, we are just not prepared to enter into a 20-year lease”

He added: “I hope Wokingham football club stay in Wokingham.

"We continue to support them and work with them. We are quite happy to work with them to keep them at Cantley on a remedial short-term basis or help them with their Lowther Road ground.”

He denied the reason for being unwilling to commit to the lease was a team of developers has asked to include Cantley Park in the north Wokingham major development location for housing.

Land north of Wokingham is earmarked to take 1,500 homes by 2026.

The council is awaiting a draft report from a planning inspector on its plans for the homes, which will set out whether the developers’ bid to include Cantley in the north Wokingham site should be allowed.